Was iran modernizing in late 19's because of lack of muslim pressence
Executive summary
Iran did enter processes of modernization beginning in the late 19th century, but this trajectory was driven by a complex mix of state reform efforts, intellectual exchange, economic pressures and foreign intrusion — not by a "lack of Muslim presence," and in fact Shiʿa clerics remained socially powerful even as some institutions secularized [1] [2] [3]. Claims that modernization happened because Muslims disappeared from public life are unsupported by the reporting provided; the evidence instead shows coexistence, contestation and periodic alliance between secularizing elites and religious authorities [4] [5].
1. Modernization began in the late 19th century, but it was multi-causal
Scholars trace Iran’s movement toward modern institutions and ideas to late‑19th and early‑20th century reforms, intellectual currents from the wider Muslim world, and pressures from European powers and internal elites pushing for a stronger centralized state — not to any demographic vacuum of Muslims — with reforms in bureaucracy, education and law emerging before the Pahlavi era intensified them [1] [3] [6].
2. The Shiʿa clergy remained influential rather than absent
At the end of the 19th century the Shiʿa ulama retained significant influence over society and politics, and this influence shaped, resisted and sometimes accommodated modernization projects; far from disappearing, clerical networks were central political actors through the Constitutional era and beyond [2] [5].
3. Top‑down secularizing policies under the Pahlavis altered institutions, not faith
Reza Shah and later Mohammad Reza Shah pursued rapid, state‑driven modernization and secularization that removed many clerical controls over courts and education and created a Westernizing urban elite — a process scholars emphasize as modernization “from above” that produced social fractures rather than erasing religion [4] [3] [7].
4. Religious modernism and Islamic politics also modernized — they did not vanish
Parallel currents of Islamic modernist thought and political Islam engaged with modernity: reformist religious thinkers and movements argued for compatibility between Islam and democratic or modern institutions, and Islamists later mobilized modern tools (printing, networks, mass mobilization) to contest secular rule, demonstrating that religion modernized alongside the state rather than being absent [8] [9].
5. Resistance to Westernization complicated the narrative of “secular progress”
Intellectuals and movements critical of Western cultural influence (for example the critique captured in Gharbzadegi) framed state secularization as alien and imperialist — an argument that fed later anti‑Pahlavi mobilization and shows that modernization was contested on cultural and political grounds, again undermining any simple story that a lack of Muslim presence caused modernization [10] [2].
6. Empirical limits of the claim: available reporting does not support “lack of Muslim presence” as the cause
None of the provided sources asserts that Iran modernized because Muslims ceased to be present in society; instead they document clerical power, clerical engagement with politics, and top‑down secular policies that displaced clerical control over institutions [2] [3] [7]. Therefore the specific causal claim in the question — modernization due to absence of Muslims — is not supported by the reporting at hand and cannot be affirmed.
7. A more accurate causal frame: plural, contested modernization
The evidence in the sources points to a plural and contested modernization: state reformers, urban and educated elites, foreign pressures, and competing religious modernists all contributed to societal change; secularization of institutions was significant but uneven, and clerical actors adapted, resisted or led political movements at different times [4] [1] [8]. This nuanced picture explains why twentieth‑century Iran moved toward both modernization and a powerful religious counter‑movement, culminating in 1979’s overturning of the Pahlavi secular state [2] [9].